Self Reflection – Group Facilitation # 2: Meal Plan & Prep

Yesterday, I lead a group session on meal planning and preparation. Since meal planning, preparing and serving a well-balanced, nutritious meal is an instrumental activity of daily living, I felt as though each of my group members could benefit from learning more about this topic.  I was excited about presenting this topic since I routinely meal plan and prep my meals every week. I have tried different techniques and since every person has different schedules and food/meal preferences, this would be a diverse skill to discuss.

I felt as though I introduced the topic appropriately. I began the session by asking all group members to tell us how they felt at that time and then what their favorite food was. I felt this was a good way to know how everyone was feeling before getting into conversation or discussion as well as getting to know everyone a little more by learning their favorite food. We next transitioned into the activities I had prepared. After each activity, we would have a time of sharing, discussing and processing. I would then try and generalize the similarities and differences I was hearing within the group discussion. I felt as though the activities I presented were graded appropriately for the group and it make each group member really think about their particular habits and roles. I thought it was interesting how most of the group members had meal prepped or planned at some point. I believe it is a great habit to incorporate into ones like in order to alleviate stress, take advantage of time and to save money. Although it doesn’t work the same for everyone, I think each group member was able to walk away from the session and learn something more about themselves.

This group session was a little different from the last one I lead on time management. Although both meal planning, meal prepping and managing time can share some of the same aspects, mainly being planning, they are different and the activities I planned were very different. Last session, I had included a game and a more creative component, which I definitely enjoyed. I think in the future I will try to be a little more creative when planning group sessions, of course, if appropriate for the session topic. Initially, I felt more confident after my last session. I felt as though the group members may have gotten more out of that session. After speaking to a few members, they all stated they thoroughly enjoyed the session. This made me feel better about my performance and reminded me to not be so hard on myself.

From this session I have learned that some topics that may seem easy can potentially be harder to articulate than others topics. I felt as some points I was repeating things the group members were saying but then again, reinforcement can be helpful to some people that need those reminders and to hear ideas more than once. In the future, I plan to keep working on being creative in my sessions and incorporating activities that are engaging and fun so the group members can truly make connections and improve their skills.